16 Things That took Place in December

December is a busy time in retail, and so I’ve been very busy. So here’s a look back at December and we’ll get back to regular posting soon.

1. Labor announced it would maintain the current government’s boat turn-back policy and would continue offshore detention as a deterrent – but would support Kerryn Phelps bill to evacuate asylum seekers to Australia for medical reasons.
2. The Australian Labor Party held their national conference in Adelaide, which went relatively smoothly – minus some environmental and asylum seeker protesters who tried to interrupt Bill Shorten. All in all, it’s become apparent that the election in 2019 is Labor’s to lose and the party showed unity at their conference.
3. As house prices fall, there are concerns that the market could collapse. But the whole thing is weird because generally house prices fall when there are high interest rates, but this time that isn’t the case. For some people if the prices continue to drop, buying a home might actually become attainable.
4. The ACCC has called for data rights legislation, and for search engines to control traffic to news sites. The ACCC says this is so that journalists who break huge news stories get the credit for their hard work by having these search engines push readers to the original story, rather than to another news site that didn’t break the story.
5. Australia finally had two Joint Strike Fighters arrive, 20 years after ordering them (we’ve got more on the way)
6. There are legislation changes for casual workers. They can now ask that their role become permanent after 12 months, but while the business council believes this is a good thing, the unions are concerned that this could lead to casual workers being treated badly.
7. Scott Morrison had his first COAG meeting – which was “co-operative”, “collaborative” and “productive” according to the Prime Minister and State and Territory Leaders.
8. There is a push to sell regional universities to international students to relieve pressure on the major cities and share the money that streams in from international students more widely. However, there are concerns that if international students are forced to go to regional universities, they will vote with their feet and study elsewhere.
9. The government will set up an anti-corruption watchdog after a lot of to-and-fro. The Commonwealth Integrity Commission will have two arms – Law enforcement, which will look after the behaviour and integrity of the AFP, Border Force and other regulators. The other arm will look after the integrity of MPs, Judges, Departments and agencies.
10. Scott Morrison has recognised West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which has made no-one happy. The Palestinians are annoyed that Australia has recognised Jerusalem whether in full or in part as the capital, while Israel doesn’t like the East-West division of Jerusalem.
11. The aforementioned announcement of West Jerusalem as the Israeli capital has put a trade deal with Muslim-majority Indonesia in jeopardy.
12. Australia will get a new Governor-General in 2019, in the form of current NSW Governor David Hurley. Hurley won’t take the role until after the federal election, because Hurley needs to keep an eye on NSW during and after the State Election in March, and almost straight after that is the federal election, so current Governor-General Peter Cosgrove will stay on to deal with that election.
13. Nationals MP Andrew Broad has resigned as Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister after it was revealed by New Idea magazine that he used ‘sugar baby’ services while on a work trip in Hong Kong. He will also not re-contest his seat of Mallee.
14. The Andrew Broad issue did distract from the MYEFO update. It’s been announced that Australia will have a $5 Billion deficit for the 2018-19 financial year, and a surplus of $2 billion in the 2019-20 financial year.
15. The NSW Liberal government has expressed their concern that the Federal Liberal government is out of touch on climate change. Other states believe this too but for the NSW government, who are due to go to the polls in March, it is of great importance to distance themselves from their federal counterparts if they want to save the furniture, let alone remain in government.
16. Australia has revoked the citizenship of Neil Prakash, an Australian fighter in Syria who was a major part of ISIS and is currently in prison in Turkey. Although there is some concern that the government has botched this. They revokes Prakash’s citizenship under the assumption that he had dual citizenship of Fiji, but it may be that he doesn’t have Fijian citizenship at all, and is now stateless.

The Week That Was – June 10 to June 16

So, we’ve avoided nuclear war for now, with Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un meeting in Singapore this week. Other than North Korea agreeing to denuclearisation (which they have promised before, only to renege), Trump keeps talking about not taking part in war games with South Korea, something the USA has done almost every year since the 1970s. People are now trying to figure out if this talk of not taking part in war games was agreed upon between the two leaders (plausible given the wording Trump used) or if it’s one of Trump’s ideas that just popped into his head.

Meanwhile, back in Australia, there are multiple investigations into the conduct of the Australian Special Forces (SAS). Now, bear with me, because it does get a little complex. After a small initial investigation by sociologist Dr Samantha Crompvoets suggested that a wider investigation was needed, the Inspector General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF) Justice Paul Brereton began an inquiry in 2016. It has recently been leaked to the media that there is now another inquiry, independent of the IGADF, by former ASIO chief David Irvine.

It appears that some of the breaches being investigated include the civilian deaths in an Afghan town during a mission; and the use of a Nazi swastika, among others. Given the secrecy of the SAS, while we didn’t know a lot about the investigation, those who are part of the investigation know who has been talking and the ADF is now investigating a threatening letter sent to a witness.

The Nationals have announced new medical student places in regional areas in order to boost the number of doctors in regional Australia. While good on paper, both medical students and the Australian Medical Association are concerned. Medical students are concerned that while they can get their basic training in the regional areas, their specialties training will not be able to take place in those areas, meaning they will have to leave to the big cities to specialise, especially for oncology, cardiology and orthopaedics. The AMA’s concern is in a similar vein, suggesting that this solution is too simplistic.

Australia has successfully combated some Chinese soft power in the Pacific, by convincing the Solomon Islands to buy an Australian made internet cable from the Islands to Australia, rather than a Chinese made one by Huawei. This is the third time that Huawei has been thwarted in their attempts to get into the Australian grid, suggesting that the Australian government feels that Huawei is a state actor for China – which is potentially true, because it is not a “state-owned enterprise” it does receive favourable treatment from the Chinese government.

Meanwhile, Brian Burston has finally quit One Nation after his stoush with Pauline Hanson over corporate tax cuts. He will now be an independent in the Senate, leaving Hanson with just one other One Nation Senator.

This week also saw the Liberal Party’s annual council (from what I can gather, it’s their national conference). Where the two big items were the rank and file voting to privatise the ABC and move the Australian Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem (like Trump did with the US Embassy). While those in parliament are suggesting that neither of these are government plans, it does beg the question of what else they talked about. Some in my house wonder what other things were agreed on, given the ABC and Embassy issues were the biggest news makers from the conference.

The federal government is making further progress in implementing over 100 recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse. They’ve convinced Western Australia to sign onto the redress scheme; announced a national apology to victims, which is slated for October 22; and are implementing a National Office of Child Safety. Meanwhile, New South Wales is in the process of removing the legal loophole known as the ‘Ellis Defence’, which stopped people from suing the Catholic Church, because their assets are in a trust and the trust isn’t responsible for the actions of those in the organisation.

In South Australia, legislation has been announced that will force priests to break the seal of the confessional if the person doing the confession admits to child abuse – essentially making the priest taking the confession a person under mandatory reporting laws required to report to authorities.

Finally this week, former Greens Senator Larissa Waters, who was caught up in the section 44 saga, will return to the Senate, replacing Andrew Bartlett who is going to focus on his candidacy on the lower house seat of Brisbane; Indigenous Australians commemorated the 180th anniversary of the Myall Creek massacre, remembering those murdered by stockmen; and the Australian Museum in Sydney will be one of 10 venues to host a set of rare Egyptian artefacts, with the exhibition visiting in 2021.

Tweet of the Week

https://twitter.com/leighsales/status/1006132097558253568

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Julie Bishop’s ‘truth bombs’ – ABC Online

Trump might be wrong about Kim, like Chamberlain was about Hitler – ABC Online

The Two Weeks That Were – January 1 to January 14

With the start of 2017 came some new laws, including the backpacker tax, pension asset test changes, TAFE changes and an increase in the price of passports by $20. The new year also brought the release of Cabinet Papers from 1992 and 1993, which saw the government’s decision-making in the recession of the early 1990s as well as decisions to start offshore detention and indigenous rights.

Meanwhile the government had a pretty easy first couple of days, with the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull having tea with the Pakistani and Australian cricket teams. But a relaxing fortnight it wasn’t to be.

It began with accusations that guards in Papua New Guinea had beaten two asylum seekers. Peter Dutton, the immigration minister said he wanted to hear both sides of the story. It seems that the PNG police officers believed the two asylum seekers to be drunk and so arrested them, which the two men involved deny. The men have a court date in the next few weeks. Meanwhile in the region, Indonesia has suspended some aspects of military co-operation after they took offence to some training material at an SAS base in Perth, where the Australians help train the Indonesian version of the SAS. It appears to only be temporary, but for how long is unclear. This has happened without the involvement of Joko Widodo, and that is because the head of the Army in Indonesia is independent, and it seems that the man in charge at the moment didn’t appreciate Australia’s involvement in East Timor in 1999, and also seems to have political ambitions.

Speaking of East Timor (aka Timor Leste), they have called for the maritime treaty with Australia to be cast aside. Under the current treaty, Australia has slightly more territory than East Timor and they share the revenue of resources 50/50. There will be a renegotiation  soon, but several oil and gas companies just want to know who they have to pay rent to so that they can extract resources.

Centrelink is under fire for its debt recovery program. It involves a computer matching welfare recipients’ declared income to Centrelink, with information from the ATO, and this computer is about 20% wrong. This means that a large number of people are receiving debt collection notices from the government who don’t need to. It’s lead to criticism of the government and Centrelink, with demands that the system be stopped while the issue is fixed, but the government disagrees. It is not a good look for them given the last seven days of drama with Sussan Ley.

Health Minister Sussan Ley has had to resign in the last week after it was revealed that she charged taxpayers for a trip to the Gold Coast that, while originally for official policy business, involved her and her partner purchasing a luxury apartment. It then sort of blew up in the minister’s face when it was revealed that she’s charged taxpayers for many more trips to the Gold Coast, including trips to attend a swanky New Years Eve party. She started by standing down, but then resigned.

It’s lead to calls for the reform of politician’s expenses, with 27 recommendations from an Abbott-era review that was started after Choppergate being looked into by Turnbull. It looks as if we might be taking a leaf from the UK’s book, having an independent review board overlook and advise on MP’s travel expenses – with an emphasis on the word expenses rather than entitlements – such as whether or not you should charge the taxpayer for flights because someone invited you to the AFL Grand Final.

Finally this week, Rod Culleton’s spot in the Senate has been declared vacant by the President of the Senate Stephen Parry, after Culleton was declared bankrupt.

Tweet of the Fortnight

Past elections contested by Anthony Fels #wapol pic.twitter.com/wlAcKtLm63

— Antony Green – elections (@AntonyGreenElec) January 3, 2017

 

The Week That Was – May 25 to May 31

The Budget Saga continues.

The ALP and the Greens has said that they will allow the ‘deficit levy’ to pass through the senate, but anything else will be rejected – because guess what…they’re unpopular! Government Senators and MPs have admitted that the Budget is sort of hard to sell to their constituents. They seem to say that their electorates are ok with the deficit levy, but nothing else. Also of concern is the fact that certain agencies have been cut or had their funding – including security at Parliament House. Cue Bill Heffernan:

Mathias Cormann says that “This is the budget we had to have” which has reminded the older people in my house of Paul Keating, and there was lots of yelling in Question Time as Parliament resumed.

There has also been concern in Aboriginal communities, where a large number of people are on unemployment benefits. They say that job are hard enough to find, and that both the “earn or learn” and the “work for the dole” programs will make life difficult for Indigenous youth. The Government has said that they will be more lenient on Indigenous communities, but there are also huge funding cuts to Indigenous services.

There was talk that the government was going to use taxpayers’ money to explain the budget, which is a bit of an issue given they said the were cutting funding to a lot of things, but that was quashed by the Prime Minister. There is also concern from within the back benches, with one government MP, Dennis Jensen, asking about science funding – which has become “incoherent”.

But the government has said that they will now negotiate the GP co-payment – begin Politics and Budget Gymnastics 2014.

Still on the budget, there were concerns that the government might chase after HECS debts when you’re dead – Abbott quashed that idea too, which could be putting the Treasurer into a difficult position.

Clive Palmer showed up to parliament in his own (chauffeured) car, saying he didn’t need Commonwealth car (com car) and that it’s a waste of the taxpayers’ money. He also said that he wouldn’t be making any decisions until he had more information about the Budget. He was seen having dinner with Malcolm Turnbull and Treasury officials – which lead to Joe Hockey (who has had gastric sleeve surgery) making fat jokes. Not a good look.

A report into the riot on Manus Island, run by Robert Cornall, came out this week and it does suggest that there were warning signs that a riot was possible. The report says that a Salvation Army staffer from PNG was the most likely person to have killed Reza Berati, the asylum seeker killed in the riots. It says that G4S, the security company knew there were issues. However, while it appears the Papua New Guinean Government’s report is similar to the Cornall Report, the PNG police are accusing them of a cover-up. They say they never entered the centre and that G4S didn’t co-operate with their investigation, and neither did the Australian Government.

The Greens are very concerned, and have called for Scott Morrison’s resignation – though that probably won’t happen.

South Australia had some pretty cool political drama this week, with former Liberal leader Mark Hamilton-Smith defecting to support the Jay Weatherill’s Labor government. He will become and Independent Liberal, and a minister in Weatherill’s cabinet, as Minister for Trade, Investment, Veteran’s Affairs and Defence Industries. The SA Liberal are angry and are calling it a betrayal, and some in his electorate are unimpressed because they voted Liberal, not Independent or Labor.

Finally this week, as the Thai coup continues, the Australian government is stepping down relations with the Thai Army, there were protests against the budget and changes to Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, Tim Mathieson (Julia Gillard’s partner) dissed Margie Abbott, and Joe Hockey circa 1987:

Quote of the Week

“Some people do drugs at university, I did the Young Liberals” – Nick Xenophon’s standard reply when people bring up his membership of the Young Liberals in his university days.

Tweets of the Week

Christopher Pyne also supports chasing after your HECS debt when you’re dead…

https://twitter.com/DeptOfAustralia/status/471807846900723712

And there was talk that the ABC and SBS could be merged…so here’s what people came up with…

"Tonight on ABCSBS: Miss Fisher's World Cup Countdown, followed by Lateline with Inspector Rex, then Vietnamese Rage!"

— Tim Callanan (@MrTimCallanan) May 30, 2014

,@jonkudelka on proposal to merge ABC and SBS back room functions. (Lowers voice) Contains…adult themes pic.twitter.com/kDHbJNHwOc

— Frank Keany (@FJKeany) May 29, 2014

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

Malcolm Fraser warns against the combining of ABC and SBS – Canberra Times

We don’t need to change section 18C to have free speech, because we already have it – A Tony Abbott version of Pharrell’s Happy.

Liberal Launch, Freaky Arty Things and Upsetting NSW

Sunday saw the Liberal Party campaign launch, which was a little American-esque. Tony Abbott said it was a “referendum on trust” and that Labor is incompetent. Julie Bishop tried, I think, to make a joke about how Kevin Rudd reminded her of The Hulk. To be honest, I found it more nasty than funny. He’s promised to abolish the mining tax and carbon tax, $200m dollars for dementia treatment, bring the budget into surplus and reduce red tape for a stronger economy.

In an interview with the ABC that evening, he said that there needs to be an audit – fair enough, apparently there hasn’t been one in 20 years – and that his government will have no surprises or excuses. He was asked if he supported military action in Syria, given that there has been talk of it since the reported gas attacks, but all he said was that the UN envoys need to be allowed into Syria to have a look around.

Syria meant Kevin Rudd stayed in Canberra on Sunday, before moving onto Sydney. He keeps saying that Abbott’s Paid Parental Leave Scheme will be really quite bad for everyone and it will damage the economy, and the Labor Party has released this advertisement:

Speaking of advertisements, this is what became news on Monday (you will need to got to about 4:20) :

Also there was some freaky weird art guy in Melbourne as part of something to do with The Greens, which was the source of great amusement in my house.

From funny haha to funny peculiar – there are questions as to why Barnaby Joyce, candidate for the seat for New England, has preferenced One Nation before someone less mental. Not only that but apparently he hasn’t actually been campaigning in the electorate he wants to be MP, he’s been in Queensland. Not only that but there are further suggestions that he actually wanted the candidacy of the seat just across the border in Queensland.

Tuesday brought us the lesson “How to upset the NSW Premier in one easy step” – that step you ask? Well, you suggest that Garden Island, where the Australian Navy has its HQ, should be turned into a cruise ship terminal and the Navy should move to Brisbane. In a way, I see how it works, BrisVegas is closer to places where the Navy would be needed, such as Pacific nations battered by a really bad cyclone.

The experts, who usually know what they are talking about, say that it will be expensive to move the Garden Island stuff to QLD, but is also important to Sydney.

We now have a week and a half to go – if you can’t get to the polls on September 7, find out where you can pre-poll vote here.